Roundup: Momentum or not after the by-elections

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I hope that everyone has enjoyed their Dominion Day celebrations. The Liberals and Conservatives certainly have, after their by-election wins, the Liberals not only holding Scarborough–Agincourt and winning Trinity–Spadina, but they made impressive gains in Fort McMurray–Athabasca. Their voter share went up in pretty much every one of the ridings, which probably says something. In fact, the Conservatives took less than 50 percent of the vote in Fort McMurray, which is actually a fairly significant thing, and perhaps not all that surprising given how upset they are with the changes made to the Temporary Foreign Workers Programme, which has a significant impact on their local economies, not to mention the myriad of ways in which the Harper government has ballsed up the Keystone XL file, and made it harder for the Americans to come to an agreement on it. As well, the Green Party scored more votes in Macleod than the NDP, which must also give them some pause as they keep insisting that they are making headway into Alberta. Kady O’Malley notes the increase in Liberal voter share, and the stumbling NDP momentum leading into 2015. Aaron Wherry muses about the meaning of the victories for Trudeau, and whether it really is disaster for Mulcair and that it probably wasn’t the NDP’s Outremont, as many Liberals were trying to suggest. Of course, with the really low voter turnouts (getting the turnout nerd crowd to declare that we need mandatory voting now), Pundit’s Guide looks at that factor, and how these contests may play out in 2015 after redistribution, which could be important once Fort McMurray–Athabasca gets broken up.

Thanks to America’s FATCA regulations, Canadian banks will start asking where you were born, in case America needs to feel that you should pay into their coffers. No, seriously. Meanwhile, our Privacy Commissioner has grave concerns about this new arrangement, and there is talk of a Charter challenge because of it.

Rick Mercer, author Guy Gavriel Kay, astronaut Chris Hadfield and legendary film director David Cronenberg are all getting the Order of Canada (well, a promotion within the Order in Cronenberg’s case). The full list is here, and congratulations to all.

Two large analyses, one from the UN, shows that the billions being spent on maternal health are almost useless for the results they’re getting. Advocates say that the message isn’t to stop investing, however, but to invest more wisely. Stephen Harper’s office, site of so much boosterism for the Maternal and Child Health initiative, insists that there have been real and concrete results.

More than a million dollars worth of monitoring equipment bought by the Royal Canadian Navy is in limbo while the supplier, a German-Turkish firm, as the government moves ahead with legal action against them. And the stories from both sides still don’t seem to add up as to everything that is going on.

If you want a Peace Tower flag of your very own, the waiting list is now 42 years long.

Oh dear – if Canada doesn’t start contributing more to the experiments going on at the International Space Station, we may not see another one of our astronauts going up there until at least 2017, if not longer.

Former PMO Comms director Andrew MacDougall, now in the London, says that the UK should be looking to Canada for lessons on how to handle the immigration file, unlike their current approach where everyone is pandering to the anti-immigration vote.

And here’s a Canada Day Dominion Day photo gallery for you to enjoy.

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